I love the range Silvia Moreno-Garcia has in her writing and how distinct each book feels from the others. The one common thread often seems to be women longing for something seemingly just out of their reach. In this novella, a woman working in the gig economy as a rent-a-friend is obsessed with the possibility of moving to the Mars colony one day. Despite not having the money and despite everyone in her life telling her it's a useless fantasy, Amelia is determined. I really appreciated that this was all about the journey, not the destination. We never see Amelia reach Mars. We never even see her on a spaceship. This story is all about longing and striving toward a goal rather than some grand adventure. That might make it less exciting than a lot of the science fiction we see today, but that's actually what I loved about it. Prime Meridian stands out from the crowd.

This was a surprise. I really enjoyed it but didn't know what to expect at all. I think Amelia is what Jazz from Andy Weir's Artemis would be like if instead of living on the moon colony she was stuck on Earth dreaming of living on the moon colony. Except she is written so much better, like so so much better. It was a quick read and an enjoyable one, which feels weird to say considering the life Amelia leads. If you like dystopian, near-future sci-fi and don't mind a bleak read, give this a go.

This book is not standard new-adult science fiction, but a well-written, and touching story in a, quite possible to happen, dystopian future.
Amelia is a heart-warming, relatable and real heroine. The theme of a woman giving her best and even tough being taken for granted is shown in detail (I found the symbolism with the rat very clever) and the heroine arc is lovely.
I hope there are more books with Amelia's life on Mars and will be checking out future books by this author.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Innsmouth Free Press for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The story of Amelia, a young woman who dreams of moving to Mars which has been colonised. She dreams of the reality of living with Mars and the romantic version in the old films depicting it.

But she is stuck scraping by on Earth in Mexico City, doing odd jobs here and there just to survive, living with her sister and her kids, she spends most of her days in coffee houses drinking the cheapest coffee while using their wifi.
An old boyfriend who broke her heart appears on the scene again and as she begins to see him again, even though he is engaged, she will not forgive him fr walking out without saying a word and wont let him get in the way of her ultimate dream of moving to Mars.

Not too much to say about this one. Not really a sci fi piece despite the setting. As a novella its short and sweet. the characters are mildly interesting but there isnt anything really profound or gripping about this book.

It passed a couple of hours with ease.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Innsmouth Free Press and Silvia Moreno-Garcia for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This novella length story set in a future where we have traveled to and colonized Mars is packed full of the desperation that many are feeling right now. It is the story of a young woman who put everything she dreamed of on hold to care for a sick parent, then never was able to pick it back up again after that parent passed, with a sister who takes her presence for granted, but tries to make her feel like the leech. It is the story of a woman who finally takes her life back, with help from an unexpected source, in spite of everyone trying to convince her it's a bad idea, for their own reasons, not hers.


While I cannot say this was a fun read, if you are expecting a sci-fi story about Mars, this is not the place, it was well done and evokes the emotions that the character is feeling so well. Your heart just aches for Amelia, who can never seem to win, and constantly does for others, only to be chastised and unappreciated at every turn.


I gave this a 4/5, and look forward to reading more from Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I was very affected by the slice of a life she crafted here.

Amelia wants nothing more than to go to Mars. Unfortunately right now, she can't afford it. She does a variety of odd jobs, such as a rent-a-friend program to raise money in the meantime.

Moreno-Garcia's characters are always interesting, and she places them in rich, vibrant surroundings. So far I've loved everything I've read from her.

I loved the slice of life feel this had. The story is about day to day problems like unemployment, exboyfriends and strangled family relationships. The sci fi touches were very realistic, like the Friendr app could be real at any point. Also it felt depressing but with the economic crisis it isn't far fetched that a lot of cities would end up like the one in this book. The worldbuilding and descriptions were amazing but I wish we had seen more about the rest of the characters. The main character came accross as trapped and selfish and desperate, which I loved, but it also meant getting no input from other characters. All in all fantastic.

I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting – but it wasn’t this. Less escapist space opera and far more dystopian, very-near-future, this novella packed a punch. I’ll be honest – given what else was going in my life, this was not the read I would have chosen to pick up. But I’m glad I did.

Amelia has edges – and quite right, too. So would I if I’d endured the lack of opportunity and dead-end options facing her. She has fixated on going to Mars – right from the time she was old enough to be ambitious and despite having had a series of unlucky breaks, she still is determined to get there. It’s the only thing that really matters… so it is painful to read of her constant struggles that seem to go nowhere. She is constantly angry and hostile to those around her – not ideal when one of her hard-scrabble jobs is to sell her companionship in response to an app.

The world is richly depicted – which seems to be Moreno-Garcia’s trademark, along with indepth characterisation that doesn’t impede the storyline. She nearly has the pacing nailed, but I did feel the ending was a tad hurried in comparison to the rest of the story. Having said that, novellas are fiendishly difficult to get right.

I enjoyed the story and the awkward dynamic between Amelia and the rest of the characters. The times when she is most at peace with herself and those around her, are when thinking of Mars, or watching the movies with an ageing actress who employs her to listen to her past. And if you think that sounds rather poignant, you’d be right.

I would love to read a sequel to this thought-provoking story as I find myself wondering about the character and what happens next. Recommended for fans of literary fiction. While I obtained an arc of Prime Meridian from the publisher via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10

Amelia is a near-future equivalent of a millennial. Forced to quit school to take care of her ailing mother, she gets by living with her sister, doing "Friendrr" gigs, and selling her blood. It's a bleak life. When her wealthy ex-boyfriend comes around, things may be looking up, but he turns out to be engaged to someone else. Amelia has few prospects for a job, a career, or marital happiness, but she holds out home to, one day, go to Mars.


Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Prime Meridian is a thin little book, in more ways than one. Nothing about Amelia made me want to cheer her on in her dream to go to Mars. I don't think I would even want to hang out with her. I felt a little sorry for her, that she had to take care of her dying mother, and that she and her sister have such a bad relationship. But she mostly came across as a whiny victim, certainly not as a heroine.


Moreno-Garcia paints a believable picture of the near future world of Mexico City in all its gritty, miserable reality. Her subtle references to social trends, mores, and lifestyle give a sense of despair and hopelessness, but Amelia retains hope in the midst of this that she will get to Mars. This is an interesting little book in some ways, but I didn't like it all that much.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Prime Meridian by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a near-future novella that has been sitting in my TBR for a surprisingly long time, although the release date is this month. (The reason is that the review copies were sent out close to the crowdfunding campaign for the book.)

Amelia dreams of Mars. The Mars of the movies and the imagination, an endless bastion of opportunities for a colonist with some guts. But she’s trapped in Mexico City, enduring the drudgery of an unkind metropolis, working as a rent-a-friend, selling her blood to old folks with money who hope to rejuvenate themselves with it, enacting a fractured love story. And yet there’s Mars, at the edge of the silver screen, of life. It awaits her.

This book was kind of bleak, albeit not completely devoid of hope. Set in a future Mexico City so near that, aside from the colonies on Mars, it could be tomorrow. Amelia, our main character, has a shitty life living on the poverty line and dreaming of moving to Mars.

The story is mostly about her trying to make ends meet and save up enough to buy a ticket to Mars in a very gig-based economy (at least for the not-wealthy). Her main job is working as a sort of rent-a-friend (via an app) and, among other things, listening to an old lady talk about her life as a movie starlet in pulpy science fiction movies (especially the one set on Mars).

This wasn't a terrible story but I didn't love it. It was a very mundane kind of bleak which wasn't particularly what I expected from the cover art. I also thought there'd be more experiences of Mars in it, but Amelia doesn't see it for herself during the novella. We just hear a lot of different things about how much better or worse it is there which doesn't give much of a feeling of hope. I mean, I think that was what the author was going for, but it wasn't really what I was hoping to read.

I recommend Prime Meridian to fans of near-future and mundane SF who don't mind reading something that isn't too cheerful. I wasn't a huge fan, but I will probably check out some of the author's other work in the future (for example Signal To Noise, a novel I bought on sale some time ago).

4 / 5 stars

First published: July 2018 (backer copies December 2017), Innsmouth Free Press
Series: No
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Silvia Moreno-García aprovecha un escenario de futuro cercano para contar una historia de frustración y lucha contra la adversidad que podría estar aconteciendo ahora mismo en el edificio de al lado.

Prime Meridian es el nuevo comienzo de Amelia, una joven mejicana que mira hacia la colonización de Marte como su única salida de una vida condenada a la mediocridad y la pobreza. Pero incluso ese viaje está fuera de sus posibilidades.

La autora relata con toda crudeza la situación de status quo irresoluble en la que se ven atrapados muchos jóvenes, sin posibilidades de avanzar pero con el miedo a retroceder aún más en la endeble escalera de la economía. Es difícil calificar esta obra como ciencia ficción, porque no tiene apenas elemento especulativo, y el viaje a Marte se podría haber sustituido fácilmente por cualquier otro mítico El Dorado inalcanzable. Lo que sí se puede decir sobre Prime Meridian es que su verosimilitud es su principal baza y también su principal amenaza. Su personaje protagonista no despierta empatía, ni siquiera en su trabajo como "amiga profesional" consigue conectar con las personas a las que presta servicio, pero aún así nos sirve para hacer una reflexión poderosa sobre las metas que tenemos en la vida y que esperamos cumplir.

Me gusta la representación de la ciudad de Méjico como un hervidero de actividad en el que los humanos se pierden como gotas entre los intersticios de la mano, consigue darle más credibilidad a la historia.

No es una obra que recomendaría al lector que vaya buscando ciencia ficción al uso porque no es lo que va a encontrar. Pero si que es una obra que merece la pena leer.

I got an ARC copy of Prime Meridian from Net Galley and loved it. It is a fantastic novella (what are my reading habits coming too?).

Prime Meridian is a really light type of sci-fi. There’s no robots, no space ships, no aliens, just a city that is disenfranchised by technology and money, as people scrape and struggle to make ends meet. It’s a sci-fi that blends the now and the future, but that you can easily imagine the tipping point as we fall forward into prioritizing the wealthy over the poor.

Amelia dreams of going to Mars. But there are different tiers of access to Mars, where rich people can pay their way to join the colony but the poor go as indentured servants. She has no hope but to continue working menial, minor jobs in order to maybe one day save enough. I loved the concept of Friendr, which is obviously based on Fiverr. I’ve used Fiverr before and really dislike it. It does weird things to the psyche in my opinion when you’re trying to make money in a system that devalues your labour.

But ultimately this is a novella about relationships and loneliness. Moreno-Garcia does a really good job at creating the character relationships and made me cry at the end (which was awkward since I was reading this at work). This is the second book by Moreno-Garcia that I’ve read and I’m constantly impressed by her work. I will definitely be picking up more books by her.

Great story strong on character development, less so on science fiction

I enjoyed this book. Although science fiction plays a role in the backdrop of the story, this novella is about people. It has very strong character development and the settings are described very well. These far outweighed the lack of science fiction and this book was a thoroughly entertaining one. It is well worth the read.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.

First off, I have to admit that I was going through a weird reading slump when I picked up this novella, so it took way longer for me to read than it should have. It is short, but the pacing is very slow, so it's probably a book to read when you've got the patience to hang around and wait for the payoff. I do think the ending was worth it.

We follow Amelia, a bright 20-something, down on her luck in a near-future Mexico City. She had to drop out of college to care for her ailing mother, and having lost that opportunity, the economic realities of her situation are pretty dire. There seems to be no path forward to a respectable career for her anymore, and yet she cannot let go of her long-standing dream of emigrating to a colony on Mars.

Amelia's interactions with a variety of people in her social orbit form the focus of this novella, most importantly two clients who hire her through an app Amelia uses to offer her services as a professional friend. The first is an elderly former actress named Lucía, who hires Ameila to watch her old films with her, including one terrible, campy space flick set on Mars. The second is a super-wealthy ex-boyfriend of Amelia's who dumped her at the request of his father and has now located her again via the friend app. He's a pretty useless human being, but Amelia allows herself to be dragged back into an ill-defined sexual relationship with him, more out of economic desperation than anything else.

Though distant at the start, Lucía gradually reveals more of her own life to Amelia, and there is a through-line involving a version of the Mars film that never got made, in which the female character was to be an intrepid space explorer instead of a damsel in distress, with a story that was hers and not someone else's. As I said, the ending was great, even if it takes some patience with the casual, meandering desperation of Amelia's world to get there.

Just a quick note, this book is technically already out if you were one of the backers for the author's IndieGoGo, if not this one does not come out until this summer. I was lucky to receive a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is becoming a fast favorite author of mine. I like that she writes about younger adults (mid-20s to older) so it makes it easier for me, a 27-year-old, to relate to her characters. I like that with Amelia she writes a really lost character that just doesn't know where to go with her life. I think that is natural to feel that way, but I think our society tells us that we are supposed to have our whole life figured out. Amelia is also kind of cold and unlikeable, which I find interesting. The text in this novella even has a conversation between her and another character about how, "some people are just not meant to be liked." I find this concept to be really interesting.

I have to admit that this novella was just not what I was expecting. I do think since it deals with how technology affects society it should still be counted as a Sci-Fi book, but we never actually see Mars in the story. I think that is kind of the point. In the story, Amelia finds work on an app called Frendrr and has frequent booking with an old actress named Lucia. Lucia says to Amelia, "There are only two plots...A person goes on a journey and a stranger comes into town." This book isn't about Amelia's life on Mars, this is about her journey to get there.

Moreno-Garcia has this incredible knack for just painting the setting inside my head with her words. Like Signal to Noise, I felt like I could really see the city that Amelia lives it. You could really feel the bleakness of the world and the subtle way in how it has turned into a dystopia. It's very slight with just a few sentences here and there to show the economic depression and how everyone is struggling to survive. I like a good near-future story that is just close enough to current day. It makes it feel more real and believable.

I think if you liked Moreno-Garcia's other books you would enjoy this one. Since it's a novella it's also shorter and a quicker read to get through.

*I received a free egalley copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for this copy of Prime Meridian.

I was eager to read something by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and this novella hasn't disappointed me at all. The money issues, gigs and precariousness as the setting of the story is very relatable to the millennial generation, especially to those who live in countries deeply struck by the economic crisis. Amelia, the main character forced to struggle with a toxic family and a very difficult social situation. The huge gap between the rich and the poor. The selfishness, the reification of the people without resources, the injustice and insecurity, the weight of distress and the unknown future. Every of these issues is present on the book; but, over all, there are Mars and the hope of a better life.

With a dynamic, casual but very evocative prose, Moreno-Garcia tells us a very deep story about world's hardship and how sometimes our dreams can stop us or tie us up, but can also protect us from decisions that would mean a final surrender. In Prime Meridian, clinging to your dreams is the only act of rebellion allowed by a society that seems to be shouting: “If you have nothing, resignation is the only way to survive.”

This is a great story, with great characters and a great structure as well. It’s divided in blocks of two chapters intertwined with little "interludes" that emulate the style of a movie script, mirroring Amelia's path through the plot. Because cinema is another of the most important elements of the book, and it acts like a bridge between dreams and reality.

5/5 to Prime Meridian, because it manages to tell in a very sharp, clever way everything the author wanted to tell us.

Full review (in Spanish) in La Nave Invisible.

Amelia works as a rent-a-friend, spending time with others in exchange for a little money in her pocket. All the while, she dreams of mars and a life different from her own. This was more of a short-story than a novel. I didn't get a real feel for the characters. The entire book felt bleak, making it feel as if it was going nowhere. Overall, not a book for me.

Really interesting short story. Near-future, recognizable places and tech. Sympathetic characters. Excellent prose and pacing. Fantastic introduction to Moreno-Garcia's writing. Can't wait for more.

In general, I’m not a big fan of novellas. I like a long story that I can really sink my teeth into. Too often, an author tries to do too much in a novella. They cram in world building, character development, a plot and a message, and none of it gets enough attention. I’ve read some novellas that spent so much time setting up the situation that it felt like the actual conflict got wrapped up in 30 seconds.

Prime Meridian by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the rare example of a story that fits just right into the novella length.

Much of the success of this book is due to the author’s deft hand. Moreno-Garcia doesn’t spend a lot of time on exposition, yet she still manages to convey a sense of place and give us a three-dimensional main character. A few details about Mexico City conjure a complete image of the setting. Amelia’s personality and past are revealed as we get to know her better, showing themselves in how she reacts to people and situations, and in the relevant details of her past that she reflects on as they relate to her present situation.

Amelia is a character that many Millennial readers will be able to identify with. She had to drop out of school to care for a dying mother, and having lost her scholarship, she now has a worthless half-finished degree and no career prospects. She lives with a resentful sister and scrapes by on “side hustles.”

Her main source of income is “Friendrr”, an app that lets people hire friends. This also serves as an introduction for two of the secondary characters. One is Amelia’s main client, Lucia, a retired actress who loves to watch her old movies and work on her memoir. She doesn’t necessarily consider her past “the good old days”, however. She presents an unvarnished look at what it was like to be a B-Grade actress and work with difficult creatives. Honestly, I adored her. She started out seeming like a shallow throw-away character intended to establish what Amelia’s work was like, but she had a depth to her that I loved.

The other is an ex who finds her through the app, and serves as a source of conflict. Does Amelia want to be with him, does she just want the money, or does she want nothing to do with the whole situation?

Oh yes, and there’s Mars.

This may have sounded like literary fiction until now, but Mars is integral to the story. Although everything else about Amelia’s life feels like present or near-future, in this story we have colonies on Mars, and that’s where Amelia wants to be, more than anything.

Her ex used to share her dream of Mars.

And Lucia starred in a movie about Mars.

All of this together into a story about dreams and reality and film making.

In many ways, Prime Meridian feels like the prequel to the book you’d expect to read. So often, we’re given stories about colonists trying to make it on Mars. But this is about what happens before you get to the red planet, the struggle to achieve that dream.

Pros: Latina protagonist, a quick and satisfying read.

Cons: Not available in Kindle store.

Conclusion: Perfect for a short flight to your own adventure.

Prime Meridian will be available on July 10th 2018. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced review copy.

There’s a candour about Prime Meridian that won me over from the start. Amelia glowers off the page, her daily frustrations and challenges all too familiar to anyone desperate to hang on to their dreams when faced with an uncaring world. This is a future so near you can smell it, made up of daily trade-offs – the value of Amelia’s time vs the cost of reaching her clients; the need for privacy vs the expense of drinking coffee in cafes; friendships vs social utility. She navigates snobbery and casual sexism, avoiding the gangs as assiduously as she avoids her sister.

It’s hard not to consider Amelia as lonely as she is frustrated, stewing in her own self-loathing. She takes money from people she despises because it’s still better than any of the dead-end jobs her sister keeps pushing her at.

All of which makes this novella sound dreary and depressing, but it’s not – just as Amelia isn’t unlikeable in spite of her hard edges and uncompromising pragmatism. I fast found myself rooting for her, perhaps because – even though we’re seeing them through Amelia’s bias – the people she interacts with seem entirely deserving of her disdain.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia depicts her supporting cast mercilessly without ever stuttering into caricature: Fernanda’s uncaring showboating; Anastasia’s snide, undermining comments; the solicitous yet somehow disinterested attention of Elías, who seems to be more attached to his idea of Amelia than the reality of who she is and what she wants.

Easily the most likeable member of the cast is Amelia’s client Lucía, an aging B-movie actress who is as fascinated by Mars as Amelia herself. Her memories of shooting cult movies with billowing dresses and rayguns, space pirates and out-of-place Vikings add a vibrancy and warmth to the story – and leave their mark on Amelia, drawing her out of her protective shell. Lucía’s Mars is as fictional as the girl on the Visit Mars billboard Amelia stares at; but both seem at times more real than the actual colony beyond Amelia’s reach.

This is arguably not SFnal at all in spite of its near-future setting and love affair with the Red Planet, but I’d urge any SF reader to pick it up. I enjoyed it for its tone of voice and the skill with which Moreno-Garcia captures her cast in the briefest of vignettes. It cements my desire to read all of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s work – this has nothing but its setting in common with Certain Dark Things, and I’m fascinated by the literary edges and chameleon qualities of her work.